Toward an anthropology of women's liberation

Ruby Rohrlich‐Leavitt, ed. Women Cross‐Culturally: Change and Challenge. The Hague and London: Mouton Publishers. A volume in the World Anthropology Series, Sol Tax, general editor. Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Co., 1975. xiv + 669 pp. Tables, figures, biographical notes, and indexes. $27.50.     

The Oedipus complex in cultural anthropology today

Spiro, Melford E. Oedipus in the Trobriands. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. xii + 200 pp. including references and index. $8.00 paper.     

The making of a mushroom people: Toward a moral anthropology of psychedelics beyond hype and anti-hype

As regulatory agencies have put psychedelics on an expedited path to market approval, North Americans and Europeans might turn away from their repression and join the subset of cultures that have institutionalized the use of hallucinogenic drugs. What is the place of anthropology in this psychedelic renaissance? More specifically, how should anthropology relate to the cycles of hype and anti-hype, which have been identified as a recurrent pattern in the careers of new drugs as psychedelics have entered a second round of cultural enthusiasm and critique? This article suggests extending ethnographic studies of the psychedelic renaissance from medical to moral anthropology. The case of psychedelics is especially interesting for moral anthropology because these drugs frequently induce mystical-type experiences, which can play an ethically irritating role as mysticism challenges a strict moral order enforced through disciplinary practices. What cultural consequences would the spread of mystical experiences have for contemporary European and North American societies?     

The material culture of the modern world

SUMMARY: We discuss results of a content analysis of material culture articles in Post-Medieval Archaeology in the context of the development of historical archaeology as a discipline. We conclude that the journal remains an important outlet for detailed field reports, but in recent years, influenced by social and anthropological theories, the discipline has matured and articles have changed from antiquarian artefact presentations to contextualized material culture studies. Expansion of the journal’s temporal frame to include the recent past has so far had little effect, but the journal has benefited from the broadened international range of articles and the intellectual and theoretical backgrounds they convey.     

Rethinking ethnography: A study in public anthropology

This editorial calls for an alternative approach to writing ethnographies. Instead of treating a group as a cultural whole to make writing about it easier, the author emphasizes the importance of understanding the intracultural diversity that exists within that group. In addition, he asks ethnographers to step away from a framework which places them as the primary interpreters of a group. Instead, he calls for more dialogic, multicentric narratives, that allow the people they study (as well as their readers) to compose their own empowering narratives about the group. Intracultural diversity ensures there is not one true account, but many.     

The anthropology of modernization and the modernization of anthropology

John J. Poggie, Jr. and Robert N. Lynch, eds. Rethinking Modernization. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1974. xii + 405 pp. Tables, illustrations, maps, figures, bibliography, and index. $15.95.     

Practical and prestige technologies: The evolution of material systems

Design theory provides a useful means for analyzing both practical and prestige technologies, although the goals and constraints of each are very different. The aggrandizer model of prestige technology postulates that prestige items were essential elements in aggrandizer strategies and that prestige items emerged only under conditions of sustainable food surpluses and included the most important innovations of the last 30,000 years such as metal working, pottery, sophisticated art, and domesticated plants and animals. The aggrandizer model also accounts for the transformation of some prestige technologies into practical technologies.     

The anthropology of ethnicity

Frances Henry, ed. Ethnicity in the Americas. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1976. vii + 438 pp. Bibliographical notes and index. $22.50.     

Mountain anthropology and mountain anthropologists: The comparative study of populations at high elevations

Baker, Paul, and Corneille Jest, eds. L'Homme et Son Environnement à Haute Altitude: Environmental and Human Population Problems at High Altitude. Cahiers Népalais. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1981. 163 pp. including plates and bibliography. n.p.

Cook, David Noble. The People of the Colca Valley: A Population Study. Dellplain Latin American Studies No. 9. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1982. xx+101 pp. including bibliography and index. $15.50 cloth.

Poffenberger, Mark. Patterns of Change in the Nepal Himalaya. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1980. v+116 pp. including maps, bibliography, and index. $20.00 cloth.

Millones, Luis, and Hiroyasu Tomoeda, eds. El Hombre y Su Ambiente en los Andes Centrales. Senri Ethnological Studies No. 10. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 1982. v + 307pp. including plates, maps, and bibliography, n.p.

Lehmann, David, ed. Ecology and Exchange in the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. v + 245 pp. including bibliography, glossary, and subject and author indices. $47.50 cloth.

Skar, Harold A. The Warm Valley People: Duality and Land Reform among the Quechua Indians of Highland Peru. Oslo Studies in Social Anthropology No. 2. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1982. v + 350 pp. including plates, appendices, bibliography, index, and glossary. n.p.     

The history of cultural anthropology: Two views

Elvin J. Hatch. Theories of Man and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1973. viii + 384 pp. References and index. $12.00.

Paul J. Bohannan and Mark Glazer, eds. High Points in Anthropology. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973. xix + 449 pp. References. $6.95.     

The Demographics of Gubernatorial Appointees: Toward an Explanation of Variation

This study examines the various factors that could potentially predict or explain demographic diversity in high‐level gubernatorial appointments in state government. In particular, it identifies and analyzes a set of variables that could help answer the question: Under what conditions are governors more likely to appoint higher proportions of women and people of color to top‐ranking executive branch positions? This question, not yet addressed by researchers, is particularly salient in the current climate of accelerated devolution. Decisionmakers in state governments play a greater role in determining policy across an increasingly wide range of areas than at any time in recent history. From the standpoint of representativeness, the demographic background of state policymakers increases the stakes of those who participate, particularly in terms of policy outcomes. Thus, it is especially important to identify the participants in state‐level policy arenas and the factors that could predict their appointments.     

Understanding urban anthropology: A review of anthropology of the city

Edwin Eames and Judith Granich Goode, eds. Anthropology of the City. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1977. 344 pp. Bibliography, indexes. $8.95.